The Will of the Father Is to Believe
Every time Scripture says what we must do for eternal life, it tells us what that thing is, and every time the answer is to believe on the Son.
Two other clusters build on this: The Root Is Love and The Capacity Must Be Given.
Scripture shows this in six steps:
It all comes together in Acts 16:30-31.
Underneath it all lie Romans 10:16 and Hebrews 3:18-19.
Jesus often says “do.” Hear the word and do it. Do the will of my Father. Many people read these words as an extra step on top of faith: believe, and then also perform. Some say doing is how you get saved. Others say doing is the proof, and if there is not enough of it, the faith was never real.
But both leave out one question. Do what? What is “it”? What is the will of the Father? Scripture answers that question itself. And every time, the answer is the same: believe.
Luke 8:21
“And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.”
Luke 8:21
“Do it.” Do what? Luke has already told us in the same chapter. Nine verses earlier, Jesus explains the parable of the sower: “The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved” (Luke 8:11-12). The word heard and kept is the word believed.
Matthew 12:50 and Mark 3:35
“For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
Matthew 12:50
“For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”
Mark 3:35
This is the same day and the same saying. Jesus’ mother and brothers stand outside, and He answers. Luke says it short: “do it.” Matthew and Mark say what “it” is: “the will of my Father,” “the will of God.” So the saying means this: whoever hears the word of God and does the will of the Father. Now we know the thing to be done. It still needs to be explained.
Matthew 7:21
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew 7:21
This verse is often used to frighten believers. It has the very same words as Matthew 12:50: “the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Whatever it means there, it means here. So what is the will of the Father? Jesus tells us in John.
John 6:28-29
“Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
John 6:28-29
The crowd asks the plainest question there is: what shall we do? Jesus does not give them a list. He gives them one thing: “This is the work of God, that ye believe.”
John 6:40
“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:40
This is the verse that settles it. In the same talk, Jesus says what the will of the Father is. It is that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him has everlasting life. Just before, He adds that it is the Father’s will “that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing” (John 6:39).
So “do the will of my Father” means believe on the Son. The verse people use against faith alone says faith alone.
1 John 3:23
“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”
1 John 3:23
What about “keep the commandments”? John tells us what God’s commandment is: “That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” The love for one another that follows is the life of the family, for those who are already in it.
The work of God: believe. The will of the Father: believe. His commandment: believe.
Romans 10:16 and Hebrews 3:18-19
“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?”
Romans 10:16
“And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 3:18-19
Paul says some have not “obeyed the gospel,” and in the same breath he explains it: “who hath believed our report?” Hebrews says Israel could not enter “because of unbelief.” When the thing to obey is the gospel, obeying it and believing it are the same thing. The word “do” never added a second condition.
Acts 16:30-31
“And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Acts 16:30-31
A jailer, shaking, asks the same question the crowd asked: what must I do? The answer is one word: believe.
What this means
Every time Scripture tells us what must be done for eternal life, it tells us what that thing is. The word, the will, the work, the commandment, the gospel: each one is defined as believing on the Son. The word “do” was never the trouble. The trouble was leaving out what we are to do.
When someone quotes a “do” verse at me as a condition beside faith, I can ask: do what? And let Scripture answer.
Some say, “But Jesus told the rich young man to keep the commandments.” He did, because the man asked what good thing he must do, and Jesus let him walk that road to its end. It ends in “With men this is impossible” (Matthew 19:26). The law leads me to Christ, so that I am justified by faith.
Connected chains
This cluster is built on No Root, Still Purged, Perfected Forever, The One God Is the Father, Call No Man Father and The Law Cannot Justify. It also goes hand in hand with The One Work Is to Believe.